The untold story of life in the allied camps under theNazi's.Sean Londgen has conducted numerous interviews and

reveals a new perspective on life under the Nazis that has

long been forgotten and replaced by the myth of Colditz

and The Great Escape.

Between 1939 and 1945 almost 200,000 British and

Commonwealth Servicemen were held as Prisoners of War

in Germany. Every Allied soldier under the rank of Sergeant

was forced to work 12 hour shifts, six days a week, cutting

timber, quarrying stone, carving ice from frozen rivers and

clearing bombsites. It drove the soldiers to the brink, in

which survival was a daily trial. Many starved to death or

died from disease, others were killed in accidents or at the

hands of their guards.

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Product Description:

Between 1939 and 1945 almost 200,000 British and Commonwealth Servicemen were held as Prisoners of War in Germany. Every Allied soldier under the rank of Sergeant was forced to work 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, cutting timber, quarrying stone, and clearing bombsites. It drove the soldiers to the brink, in which survival was a daily trial.

A powerful indictment of the crimes perpetrated against men who had surrendered in good faith...Never agian, after Mr Longden's excellent work, shall we see the plight of the POWs as anything other than unremittingly monstrous -- Daily Mail, Andrew Roberts

A slave is someone who is made to wrok under thereat to his life. He isn't paid. He is at the will of his masters. It was the same for us. We were given a bowl of soup and some bread made from sawdust. If you didn't do as you were told you were shot. -- Leslie Allen

Book Description Constable, London United Kingdom, 2007. Soft Cover. Condition: New. No Jacket. Reprint. 399 pages index sources notes b/w photos - Between 1939 and 1945 almost 200,000 British and Commonwealth Servicemen were held as Prisoners of War in Germany. All those under the rank of sergeant were eligible for work and during those six years few enjoyed the rosy PoW life that is forever engraved in the imagination of the British public. The image was fostered of resolutely middle-class officers staging escapes with 'devil-may-care' bravery, anxious to get home ready for another 'crack at the Hun'. However as Sean Longden shows in Hitler's British Slaves the reality was chillingly different. Instead, most endured a daily fight for survival- the tunnels they dug were deep underground in German coalmines, not a route to escape. They worked 12 hour shifts, six days a week -cutting timber, quarrying stone, harvesting crops, laying railway lines, cutting ice from frozen rivers and clearing bombsites. They toiled alongside concentration camp inmates, are starvation rations, faced disease and daily attacks by their guards. Here are the details of what sort of work they undertook, their living conditions, their relationships with civilian workers, foreign laborers and concentration camp inmates. Many of the working prisoners starved to death, others died for lack of medical care, were killed in accidents at work, or were murdered by their guards. Yet the appalling treatment of these men has been forgotten and, to date, no ex-PoW who slaved in German industry has received a penny in compensation. Sean Longden has growth the stories of their harsh experiences and their years of privation into the light, by trawling the archives and, above all, from speaking to the forgotten veterans and hearing their stories. Seller Inventory # 332490